Ties of Friendship
by Ebonrune
Summary: Prequel to the Planet's Enemy. Vincent is wandering the world looking for a purpose after the death of Sephiroth, only to discover it in a most unlikely place.


Disclaimer: This is set between the end of Final Fantasy 7 and Advent Children. I of course, do not own Final Fantasy VII or any of the compilation. That pleasure belongs to Square-Enix.

* * *

Vincent was a drifter, moving around the world at his own pace, trying to find his place in it but for now content to simply _be_. He couldn't go back to his rest after all. He had friends, companions, people who would miss him. Besides, he'd lightened some of his burdens by aiding in stopping Sephiroth. He had not delivered the killing blow himself, that honor had been Cloud's, but he had participated and in that he had seen for himself that there was nothing in Sephiroth he could redeem or save...and so for Lucrecia he had helped to end it.

His driftings now brought him to Rocket Town, where Cid Highwind lived with the woman he had once emotionally abused, but had since come to greatly respect and marry. He found that he came by to Cid's rather frequently compared to some of his other friends. Cloud and Tifa were trying to rebuild their lives in the town that was springing up outside Midgar-aptly named Edge, Barret was off trying to find work, Reeve was forming up some organization to try and clean up Shinra's mess, Yuffie had returned to Wutai and Red XIII had returned to Cosmo Canyon. He was not particularly close to any of them, but yet it was to Cid's home that he tended to gravitate and it had taken him a little while to figure out why.

Initally it had seemed Cid would make one of the worst choices to be a friend for someone like Vincent Valentine. He was loud while Vincent was quiet, he swore and spoke roughly while Vincent's language tended to be flowy and formal. Vincent was quite evidently a gentleman and Cid was-simply put-a redneck. Yet far from being a problem, Vincent found Cid's personality refreshing. The man made no bones about how he felt about things, he tended to be brutally honest about everything. To a man who closely guarded his secrets, such honesty was a relief. Vincent didn't feel like an interloper because he felt Cid would tell him if he was unwelcome.

"More tea, Vincent?"

Vincent looked up from staring thoughtfully at the table and allowed some warmth to enter his eyes. "No thank you, Shera." He responded politely. His eyes drifted down to her swollen stomach. "Might I ask when you're due?"

"Oh!" Shera colored slightly and put a hand to her stomach, then smiled fondly. "Any day now, really. This little one is already two weeks overdue." She turned to shuffle over to the sink, waddling like a penguin as pregnant women seemed to have a tendency of doing.

"Do you know the child's gender?"

"Mm." Shera shook her head. "I wanted it to be a surprise. I'm sure the doctor who took the ultrasounds to make sure all was well knows, but I asked her not to tell me."

"Hm...not a bad surprise, though." Vincent looked down at the table and sighed softly, but it was the sigh of a content man. Shera was a nice calming presence, a counterbalance for her loud and energetic husband. This was a taste of domestic life, and while it wasn't to his liking most of the time, it was nice to experience every so often.

There was a crash from the back of the house, followed by muted swearing and Vincent lifted his head to look in that direction. "Sounds like repairs on the Tiny Bronco still aren't going very well." He commented.

Shera merely gave a soft chuckle in response and began to wash the dishes, then the two fell into comfortable silence, though Vincent cocked his head every time he heard a noise coming from rear of the home. After fifteen minutes, the sounds finally stopped and a few minutes after that, there was the bang of the front door being flung open.

"Vincent! You sneaky son of a bitch!" Cid greeted him cheerfully as he stepped into the kitchen, grease-stained and smelling of oil and cigarettes. "When'd the hell you get here?"

"A couple of hours ago." Vincent responded, wrinkling his nose at the acrid mix of smells. "Shera brewed some tea for me while we waited for you to finish working on the plane."

"Ah, well good. I've got an excellent woman here, don't I?" Cid grinned at Shera.

Shera gave him a smile in response. "Please go take a shower and put out that cigarette, dear." Her soft tone made it sound like a suggestion, but there was no question that it was an order and Cid chuckled softly, obediently grinding out the cancerstick in the ashtray in the middle of the table. "She won't let me smoke in the house any more." He explained to Vincent.

"Excellent woman indeed." Vincent commented. "Now, as Shera said, go bathe...you smell quite...pungent."

"Haw!" Cid stuck his hands in his pockets and wandered off toward the bathroom and once more in the kitchen things fell into a comfortable silence-save for a couple of sneezes on Vincent's part to clear his nose. For five minutes everything was nice and peaceful and Vincent dozed at the kitchen table, listening to the quiet clink of Shera cleaning up and the sound of Cid's shower in the background. For five minutes there was normalcy, but then the clinking stopped and a low whimper was heard.

Vincent opened his eyes to see that Shera had curled over the kitchen counter, one hand to her stomach with face devoid of color and he got to his feet immediately. Her distress was obvious. "Shera?"

"V-Vincent...help me sit down, please..." Vincent moved to her side immediately and helped her over to the table to help her sit in a chair, then he knelt down beside her wondering what to do. He had no experience with pregnant women-he'd been 'killed' by Hojo very early in Lucrecia's pregnancy-and it put him at quite the loss. "What do you want me to do?"

She put her hand on his right arm and held on to it tightly. "Stay here..." She said. "I've had false contractions before, maybe that's-" The look on her face followed by the clear liquid that shortly flowed from under her dress told the both of them very clearly that this was a different situation.

"...Is that...supposed to happen...?" Vincent asked in a very confused tone, staring almost stupidly.

In spite of the discomfort she was in, Shera couldn't help but laugh softly. "My water's broke." Her expression became a mix of fear and elation. "It's finally time."

Vincent tried not to look disgusted or panicked. Shera was calm, so there was no reason for him not to be...except that whatever that fluid was made of it was getting on his pants and he was fairly certain he didn't like that.

"Shera! Woman, where's-" Cid walked in on the situation, towelling off his hair. He stopped mid-step when he saw the two of them. "The hell, Vince? You proposing to my wife, now?"

"Cid." Shera addressed him very calmly. "It's time to go to the hospital."

"The hospit...is it finally...?" Shera nodded and Cid's face broke out in a grin. "Well, goddamn! Let's get going then! Vince, you help her out. I'm gonna go start the car." And off Cid hurried, leaving Vincent to help Shera to her feet and off to the car. One dash back into the house for the overnight bag and then they were off. From his experience with TV, Vincent expected there to be a lot of screaming and swearing on Shera's part, but instead she was very calm and merely did deep breathing exercises, wincing when there was a contraction. The arrival at the hospital was done with very little fanfare and Shera was taken to an examination room to evaluate how far along in the labor she was, leaving the two men in the waiting room outside. Cid spent the time pacing, while Vincent attempted to entertain himself with magazines.

"The hell is taking so long?" Cid stopped pacing to face Vincent who was holding a magazine up sideways and peering at it with a perplexed expression. "And the hell you looking at?"

"I'm not sure..." Vincent turned the magazine around to show a fold out yogurt ad talking about how much the attractive woman showing off her thin body had lost weight eating the product. "Is it a stick or a woman?"

Cid blinked a couple of times, then burst out laughing. "That's a good one Vince! Haw!"

"No, I'm serious..." Vincent put the magazine down. "It's rubbish. Someone shouldn't be that thin unless they're malnourished."

"Heh." Cid flopped down into the chair by him with a heavy sigh. "You've gotta pay attention to the world, Vinny. Fashion changes. The women are getting thinner. Lookit _your_ skinny ass, never mind!" He sighed and let his head fall back. "The hell is taking so goddamn long?"

* * *

Cid and Vincent were eventually let into the room, only to be told it would likely be several hours before Shera would be ready to give birth. As it was Shera's first child, she would be kept in the hospital under observation but the men were directed to head home. This was something Cid strongly disagreed with however and opted to stay. This left Vincent in the position of third wheel, and while Cid stayed by his wife's side, he wandered outside to take a walk. If it was going to take several hours, then he had the time.

It felt wrong to be there somehow. The birth of one's first child...it was special. Vincent felt like an intruder just by being in town, and more to the point, he felt as if something terrible could happen to the infant because of his presence.

He sighed heavily and shook his head to dispel the feeling of dread. It was absurd. Cid was doing most of the worrying, it was his child. All he had to do was be the calm presence when Cid was not, everything would be fine.

Still, he knew the knot in his gut wouldn't go away until the baby was safely born.

* * *

Two in the morning. At two in the morning things finally got interesting. Cid got to scrub in and stand by in the delivery room while Vincent waited outside. Vincent did not envy Cid this opportunity. A special and unique experience to be certain, but also likely to be messy, smelly and bloody and blood had a tendency of making Vincent hungry. And so he waited, glad that the thick doors largely muted the labor pains within. For a half hour he sat and tried not to listen, and he even managed to doze a little before he was woken by a...lack of noise. He cocked his head, but yes...things had gone quiet. Was this good or bad? He soon got his answer when Cid himself came out grinning like a loon.

"Vincent! It's a boy! A goddamn son! Come on!" He beckoned to his friend. Vincent grimaced a bit, but he obligingly got to his feet and silently readied himself for the smells that would surely bombard his senses. However, when he entered the delivery room, things smelled more sanitary than disgusting or bloody. The baby had been cleaned up and placed in a yellow blanket in Shera's arms and Cid all but shoved Vincent over to look at the little miracle.

Bleary half open blue eyes stared without focus up at the red and black blur peering down at him and then the infant gave a wide yawn and shut his eyes completely, nestled in his blanket with a cap on his head. He was warm and content. All was right in his little world and Vincent couldn't help but smile. "He's quite handsome."

"His name is Kyle." Shera said softly, smiling down to her son with all the love and adoration she seemed capable of mustering. Cid's expression was quite similar, and the expression was a bit odd on the grizzled man's face.

"Ahh. Well then Kyle. Welcome to the world." The baby _was_ quite cute, a little bit of perfection really. _Such a wonder of evolution...even a non family member such as myself feels inclined to protect and love this newborn._

"Say Vincent." Cid spoke up. He cleared his throat. "Shera and I were talking earlier, and we'd like you to be his godparent."

Vincent straightened up slowly with a blink. "Me? Well...I'm flattered, but why?"

"Well Vince, you come by to visit fairly often. Don't know where the hell you're staying and I'm not gonna pry-I know how you like your privacy-but you're nearby. If something happened to Shera or me, you're the closest guy to call on."

"I suppose..." Vincent conceded. "But...I know nothing about children."

"Haw." Cid clapped him on the shoulder. "Neither do we. Hell, you'll get to figure all this shit out along with us!" He patted his taller friend's back.

"I think you would be good at it." Shera said with a weary but content smile, still looking down at her newborn.

Vincent was silent for several moments. "...Very well." He said at last. "If you're certain..."

"We're sure." Cid said firmly, and that was that.

Vincent was almost certain they or he had made a mistake, but he would never be able to complain that his life was dull as he would watch the boy grow up. And he would find that it wasn't so bad, it gave him a purpose of a sort at least.


End file.
